BIOS

Ohio filmmaker missing 4 months found dead in northern B.C.

Police are trying to find Warren Andrew Sill who went missing in northern B.C. while filming a documentary about the spirit bear. (Handout)

The Canadian Press
Published Monday, November 19, 2012 6:31AM EST

NEW HAZELTON, B.C. -- A documentary filmmaker from Ohio has been found dead in northern British Columbia, more than four months after he disappeared while working on a project about rare spirit bears.

Warren Andrew Sill, 26, who travelled to New Hazelton, B.C., to film a documentary on white kermode bears, disappeared in July.

At the time, his vehicle was found at the entrance of a trail in Seven Sister's Provincial Park with his camping gear still inside.

The discovery of Sill's vehicle, along with concerns that Sill was not an avid outdoorsman, prompted a massive air and ground search, but those efforts were eventually scaled back.

On Saturday, a local search-and-rescue team located what appeared to be Sill's shirt near a waterfall. The area couldn't be reached during the summer because of the terrain and high water levels, but the water has since receded.

"Due to the decreased water levels at this time of year, members were able to access the area and located a body," RCMP Const. Lesley Smith said in a news release.

"We can confirm that it is Warren Andrew Sill and our condolences go out to the Sill family and all his friends."

Sill was working on a film about kermode bears -- a rare subspecies of black bears that have a genetic trait that turns their coats white.